.

Our time at sea continued a little rougher than we had hoped, but allowed us time to read, do a little laundry, etc. We have settled into a very pleasant routine after all these days – how will we ever get used to making our own meals, making our bed and cleaning up after ourselves.

We pulled into Suva, Fiji through a very wide atoll on each side and docked to the welcoming sounds of a full brass band wearing full regalia, including helmets and the native sarong/skirt that many of the men wear. Their music was mostly familiar tunes like "Yellow Submarine" and "YMCA" which one of the passengers joined in from his deck below us. We are the only cruise ship at the terminal and are parked side by side with ships loading containers and bound to places unknown to us.

For our first half-day, with no excursion scheduled, we walked into the city center, which is less than 5 minutes away and then along the waterfront for some distance before returning along the very busy city streets. The Fijians are undeniably friendly, greeting you every few steps with "Bula" which means hello, good-by, good luck and just about anything, it seems. The children wave and say hello, as do people simply passing you on the street. The main language is English and all the signage in the stores is in English, which certainly makes it simple for those of us on the ship. In New Caledonia it was French, so we could still get around. We were to learn that there are over 1 million Fijians spread over 333 islands (although they really count 330 because Raymond Burr bought one years ago and Mel Gibson bought his own as did Tom Cruise.) There are 200 tribes speaking 240 dialects, but able to understand each other. Tribes band together to form village with a "chiefly" tribe, a warrior tribe, and hunting and fishing tribes, etc. Then the villages band together to form a province, of which there are 14. They were a British colony and have had some influence as well from Australian convicts sent to their islands. They came independent in the late 1900s but were suspended from the British Commonwealth in 2007, I think they said, when they had the uprisings. They were just reinstated into the British Commonwealth the day before we arrived and are very happy with the political situation in their country. 57% of the population are native (Melanesian), 37% are natives of Indian descent and the remainder are a mix. 90% of people get around on the local bus systems. The main station is right at the port and we can see the buses constantly moving through from our deck. They are not air-conditioned and most don't even have windows and they are all packed with humanity. The rest of the time people get around by taxi. It seems that any car can become a taxi and, around the port, all taxis are also tour operators. As you walk from the ship you are bombarded by very friendly folk offering you a variety of day tours around the island. The weather is very tropical, with temperatures in the upper 80s and humidity in the upper 90s. Locals wear the skirt-type bottoms and most wear sandals or flip-flops. There are several very modern and Western stores along the main street. Tapoo City has 4 floors with a pharmacy, a bookstore and a food court on the top floor and a major house wares and appliance department on the third floor. The clothing on sale is pretty stylish, although there is a larger focus on Indian-style saris and beaded dresses than we would see at home. We walked through the Suva market where hundreds of vendors are selling fruits, vegetables, eggs, etc. Much of it is familiar, although we don't often see taro root for sale. Things are piled on plates or on the counters and sold for $1 a heap or $2 a heap. Their avocadoes are like the Fuerte variety in California but maybe 3 times the size.

We had a shower after our walk as the humidity was more than we were used to and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading, etc. before heading to the Grand Dining Room for dinner and a bottle of wine, as well as a long conversation with Loredana, the Executive Cellar Master, about people we knew and where they were. For once, she was not responding to emergency calls from her staff, but she had to go attend and work the deck party around the pool with Green Beer in honor of St. Patrick's Day. We had an early call the next day and are not much for large crowds of drinkers anyway, so headed back down to the cabin. The night was long as they were still loading the container ship behind us into the early morning hours, with all the port lights and the lights on the other ship on full bright and aimed right at our cabin on the back of the ship.

We grabbed some juice and cereal on our second day in Suva and headed down for a 7:50 am call for a tour of Suva and a rainforest walk. It was scheduled for 4 hours, but they warn you that things on Fiji time are not necessarily on our type of schedule. The description of the excursion was that you needed to be very fit and you needed to wear sturdy footwear as we would be walking through the rainforest for at least an hour. As always, people have a different estimation of their abilities than others do and there are always people, especially women, who wear open sandals to everything on a cruise, so you are never quite sure what is going to happen. While not necessarily "very fit" we are on the younger edge of the group and "pretty fit." We all got on the bus, which as advertised was not air conditioned and had very narrow seats and aisles. We got the "bula" greeting from the 3 guides and the driver, who is called the "captain" in Fiji. We then headed out of town, with a running tour showing us the Fiji National University campuses for technology, nursing and medicine, the Australian and U.S. Embassies (turns out this is a brand new embassy, only a couple of months old and covers the whole South Pacific region) and a variety of housing, some nice, some less so. We arrived at the Colo-I-Suva Forest Park, which is run by the Fijian Department of Forestry. Our bus took us part way into the forest on a terrible, barely gravel road and we got out at the Upper Pools parking lot, where we broke into smaller groups, each to be guided by a "forest ranger." Ours was named Pau and he did the whole walk in slip-on sandals, while the guide from the bus went barefoot. We walked through the forest for about 8km on somewhat defined trails, with some very narrow bridges over water and a lot of up and down hill walking. We were thankful for our tennis/running shoes because the whole forest gets rain twice a day and so is very slick and muddy and many of the stream crossings went through the water rather than over it. Some of the group had a hard time, but the guides were very helpful. Rob took a lot of photos of Daryl's feet to show the difficulties of the pathways. Daryl wishes her legs were longer, because some of the trail had very high steps over very wet roots and being taller was a plus.

After we reached the lower pool, those who wished to and had their suits on took a dip and one of the younger guests (way younger!) used the rope swing to all of our amusement.. We then had another uphill climb and a 20 minute uphill walk to meet the bus. Once boarded we headed to the Raintree Lodge, a few minutes away. It is an eco-tourism resort catering to backpackers and nature aficionados visiting Fiji. They served us delicious fresh fruit juice, home baked muffins with butter and guava jelly and all sorts of fresh local fruits. A Fijian dance/musical troupe performed a series of native dances and war chants (which was a little hokey, if truth be told) but the setting was beautiful, on a deck overlooking a lily pond and surrounded by tropical flowers. The place seems to be run by Europeans and they offer a European menu in their dining room, which we did not go into. They have dorm rooms, small cabins and small apartments as well as single and double rooms spread over several buildings. They seem to cater to both families and younger backpackers and hikers.

We headed back into Suva with our running guided tour and got off in City Center to hit Tapoo City for a couple of things we needed to finish off the trip. Prices aboard are pretty high because they don't stock much and have a captive audience, but a tube of toothpaste is almost $20 Fijian at Tapoo City, so maybe the ship is not so bad after all. We came back on board and Rob washed the red mud out of our shoes. Daryl snoozed on the deck until they started to load another ship right behind us. We have another La Reserve 7 course wine dinner tonight, so no lunch today (although the "snack" on the excursion could be counted.) We leave Suva at 6pm, heading to Lautoka. Our guide on the bus said he came from there overnight and is going back on the bus so will be one of the guides where we get there tomorrow.